In Deuteronomy 5:6-7, Moses begins to repeat to this 2nd generation of liberated Israelites the same covenantal demands that Yahweh had given to their parents at Mount Horeb 40 years earlier. The initial covenant bearers (their parents) had perished in the wilderness, but God’s covenant has ongoing relevance and continuity with the 2nd generation, the ones that Moses is addressing and reminding of the binding nature of God’s covenant with them. This covenant is just as binding on them (both covenant obligations and blessings), so much so that they are considered to have been there at Horeb when God initially spoke to His people.
As Moses preaches the same law to this 2nd generation, he begins with the words of Yahweh Himself reminding them of who God is and what He has done for them. Because Yahweh alone has delivered them from slavery in Egypt and brought them out through His divine power, He now gives them a gift: a way that their lives are to be ordered, and for their community life to be structured. He gives them 10 Words that are superior in nature to all the other laws He will give them. And although these laws are framed negatively (“you shall not”), this is NOT a new form of bondage: rather, they have a tremendous positive function in protecting and preserving the liberation graciously given by God. God’s Law is not intended to enslave but to enhance the liberated life.
In the first commandment (or the First Word), God insists on exclusive, absolute allegiance to Him: covenant loyalty: “You shall have no other gods before me.” No matter what gods they had seen the Egyptians worship, or what gods they had encountered in the wilderness, or what gods they would be exposed to in Canaan, they were to be exclusively devoted to Yahweh, the LORD God who had rescued them. This first commandment calls for a style of life dominated by a relationship to Yahweh, the one true God.
The remainder of this teaching focuses on a deeper dive on the gods they are forbidden to worship:
- What about the word elohim in Scripture?
- Who are included in the elohim?
- What makes Yahweh utterly unique and incomparable?
- Is there a divine hierarchy among the purely created spiritual beings?
- What’s the difference between gods and idols? But how are they directly related?
- How should we distinguish between the first and second commandments?
- What New Testament confirmation do we see of the Old Testament gods and how does that connect with spiritual warfare?
- What powers do the gods possess?
You can listen to this teaching on Deuteronomy 5:6-7 by clicking on the following link: Wholly Devoted or Relationally Treacherous?
